NORTHAMPTON — A day after a tornado tore through the Springfield area, commuters recounted harrowing encounters with the twister, while others at work described barely getting away from windows seconds before they shattered.

Tiffany Fitzgerald of West Springfield was headed home from work around 4:30 p.m.

She heard earlier in the day that there was a tornado watch, but never thought a tornado would actually touch down in downtown Springfield until she watched it happen. She was sitting in traffic on the Memorial Bridge over the Connecticut River between Springfield and West Springfield.

"I was thinking, 'I’m going to die," she said Thursday by phone. "All of a sudden the sky turned green and it was raining sideways. Then this black, billowing cloud came up off the river and it started to make the tornado formation."

Fitzgerald said she was on the bridge close to the rotary on the West Springfield side when the tornado went right over her, causing a tractor-trailer truck in the opposite lane to tip over and slide toward her. Debris smashed into her car.

"Then I put my emergency brake on and I was standing on my brake pedal, because my car was lifting up off the ground," she said. "Then it slammed me back down on all four tires. That probably happened three or four times.

"It was the loudest noise I ever heard in my life, it sounded like you were standing right next to a jet plane taking off," she said. "It was probably about four minutes total, but if felt like forever. You couldn’t see anything, it was pitch black in there with debris flying around and rain and lightning. A street lamp flew by — or at least I think that’s what it was."

Fitzgerald’s car had a broken windshield and other damage, but she feels lucky to be alive. "It looks like someone took a wrecking ball to the driver’s side of my car," she said.

A video of the tornado circulating on Facebook shows an ominous funnel cloud form near Bridge Street in West Springfield, then rush toward videographer Ryan Donovan, shattering his car window.

On the website, Donovan said his car was hit by the airborne roof of a nearby business, while a car in front of his was hit by a 500-pound air conditioner.

William Lynch of Easthampton said the dark twister passed about four car lengths in front of him on Interstate 91 near the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

"I heard about a warning, but I listen to my iPod so I had no idea there was a tornado until all the traffic had stopped and it was coming at me," Lynch said. "My car shook from side to side as it passed over. It was crazy.”

Lynch said the cars stopped in front of him were sitting ducks as the tornado spun toward them. "We were stopped right in its path," he said. "One car's hood was ripped off, a couple construction signs got ripped out, and after it went over the highway, it started to rip parts of roofs off."

Other close calls

Stephen Simmer, a psychotherapist from Northampton, was in his office on Union Street in West Springfield with a client when they heard the sound of the wind like a freight train outside.

A native Nebraskan, Simmer said he never experienced a tornado before, but learned at a young age what to do during one. He and his client went to the windowless waiting room just as his office window shattered and air started rushing out.

"The pressure was pretty intense," Simmer said. "It was hard to actually get the door closed."

Simmer said a blood vessel in his hand burst during his escape, but he wasn’t sure whether it was from the change in air pressure or some other cause.

He and his client stayed in the waiting room about five minutes until the sounds of glass breaking and debris falling stopped. Outside many people were already walking around in a daze, including a police officer, he said.

The pressure change smashed all but the windshield and driver's-side windows of Simmer's minivan, and he was able to drive it home. A car parked close by had been rolled over by the winds, he said.

Walls were torn off two neighboring buildings, but damage at Simmer's office complex was limited to broken windows and overturned lamps, picture frames and potted plants, he said. He plans to return Friday to start cleaning up.

Bill Miller of Northampton, executive director of Friends of the Homeless, said the tornado touched down just as his shelter on Worthington Street in Springfield was preparing to serve dinner to 200 people. Many rushed outside to see it, he said.

"The wind was swirling in a way you don't see around here," Miller said. "Debris was being drawn up into the air." People went back inside and huddled away from the windows.

Miller said he expects the number of people looking for shelter at facilities like his to increase in coming days as folks displaced by the storm look for a place to stay. 

Liz Klish of Northampton saw the swirling winds and felt her ears pop while she was working in her office at Neuro-Psychology Associates on Maple Street in Springfield. 

She ran into a central hallway just before a window shattered and the ceiling collapsed in an adjoining office.
Outside, fallen trees had crushed several of her co-workers' cars, including one in the space where she usually parks. She said she picked a different spot Wednesday because it was in the shade.

The office was closed Thursday because of the damage.

"It was truly one of the scariest things I've ever been through," Klish said.

Peggy Garand, who recently moved to Holyoke from South Hadley, was working on the 16th story of Monarch Place on East Columbus Avenue in Springfield when all employees were evacuated into the stairwell of the lowest floor.

Garand said she heard the tornado warnings, but didn't think a tornado would actually touch down.

"People were panicky, thinking about their kids," she said. "That's the natural reaction."

Lisa Joy of Southampton drove through storm-damaged areas in central Massachusetts Wednesday evening. A hairdresser in Southbridge, she went to her parents' house in Charlton before returning home.

"It was like a war zone. I've never seen anything like it," she said.

Damage was particularly bad at the Southbridge Airport, she said. "There were just piles of planes and cars in the road," she said.

LuAnne Carbaugh of Easthampton drove into Springfield about an hour after the tornado struck. On the way down, she listened to a local radio station taking calls from people holed up in their basements.

A professor of digital media production at Springfield Technical Community College, Carbaugh was on her way to a ceremony for honors students. The ceremony went ahead even though many participants had stayed home. Thunder could be heard outside.

"It was the most bizarre thing, with a lot of nervous energy in the room," she said.

Beforehand, some faculty and students were celebrating at the Red Rose pizzeria on Main Street. The roof of the business was torn off in the tornado, while the students and professors hid in the rest rooms, Carbaugh said.

STCC’s graduation was to have been Thursday at the MassMutual Center, which was used as a shelter Wednesday night for those displaced by the storm. The graduation ceremony has been postponed to Friday night.